U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today released the following statement on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Egypt:
“The rapidly deteriorating situation in Egypt leads me to the conclusion that President Mubarak needs to step down and relinquish power. It is clear that the only institution in Egypt that can restore order is the army, but I fear that for it to do so on behalf of a government led by or involving President Mubarak would only escalate the violence and compromise the army’s legitimacy. I urge President Mubarak to transfer power to a caretaker administration that includes members of Egypt’s military, government, civil society, and pro-democracy opposition, which can lead the country to free, fair, and internationally credible elections this year as part of a real transition to democracy.
“All Americans should be appreciative of President Mubarak’s long record of cooperation with our government, which has helped to fight terrorism and promote peace and security in the Middle East and North Africa. I remain concerned about the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations in Egypt that espouse an extremist ideology. But Egypt must have a democratic future. It is the will of the Egyptian people. It is in the interest of the United States. And the greatest contribution that President Mubarak can make to the cause of democracy in his country is to remove himself from power.”
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8 Responses
But, isn’t it the opinion of all the posters on here that the only people who want the protesters to win are either stupid or muslim (or both, as they accuse Obama of being)?
What now, when your preferred presidential candidate calls for the same thing? Will you recant? Or will you stick your head in the sand and pretend your hypocrisy doesn’t exist?
sorry 2pence mccain is for sure not our PREFERRED presidential candidate hes the lesser of the 2 evils
If Mubarak stepped down, the muslim brotherhood will take over, and turn into Iran.
It’s amazing that all these guys, including Obama and McCain, are seemingly comfortable with this AlBaradei guy – Where is the outcry that this guy is 100 times wors than Mubarak???!!! He is openly an extremist!
what absolutely galls me is this affirmation “it is the will of the people”. Egypt has EIGHTY million people- and the demonstrators may be a few hundred thousand- one million tops- and this is the will of the people???? G-d save us from such fools and i now include mccain in the same group.
2pence,
John McCain was not my preferred candidate and I happen to agree with him on this one. Although some Republicans did express support for Mubarak, the majority demanded that he step down. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, leading contenders for the 2012 nomination, called for his resignation.
Jimmy Carter (who also called for Mubarak’s resignation – albeit early and without sensible reasoning) made the same decision is 1977 when he called on the Shah to relinquish power of Iran. Many might try to take a lesson from that occurrence – one that eventually led to a radical regime taking over – and apply it here. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood and ElBaradei are troubling alternates. Both of them are anti-American and anti-Israel (at least to some extent – as Malcolm Hoenlein testified) and won’t serve to our interests. However, we should truthfully draw lessons from Iran but analyze the specific failures of Jimmy Carter as well.
Firstly, we must recognize that most of the protesters in Iran were fundamentalists that were released from prison under the insistence of Carter. These radical Jihadists were those that led the revolution and call for the destruction of Israel until today.
Secondly, Jimmy Carter attempted to coerce the Shah to follow his policies by largely ceasing US funding to the country. This led to the economic trouble in Iran and intensified the Mullahs’ calls for violence. This of course weakened the Shah and led to his downfall and more hatred toward the United States. After the Shah’s government was toppled and he was left to exile, Carter was reluctant to get involved so that the extremist do not seize power and left the Shah on his own.
In Egypt, Mubarak has no immediate future. Tensions will rise and the violence will escalate leading to the ousting of Mubarak. The longer Mubarak hesitates to surrender and call for immediate elections, the more the protesters will aggress and it will lead to an extremist takeover. We must face reality: Mubarak is history. We must ensure that his successor is a moderate of some sort and one that has our support. John Bolton and Mike Huckabee also believe that Mubarak must go – they just don’t want us to play into the protestors’ hand. If the country will be ruled largely by the military until a democratic election takes place, a moderate like Suleiman has a bigger chance of winning.
Dave Hirsch makes good points. Mubarak is history and we better learn to deal with that fact.
It might be all true but the Torah says Yismael is like a CHamor and you only maintain a chamor with a stick over him. Democracy does not work by arabs. Look what democracy brought germany in 33